- First Past the Post, Supplementary Vote, Additional Member System, Single Transferrable Vote
- How each electoral system is used in the UK and where
- How effective each electoral system is in the below areas:
~Creating a Single Party Government
~Creating Party Representation
~Providing Vote...
Comparing Electoral Systems in the UK
FPTP- UK General Elections
STV- Northern Irish Assembly, and local government in Northern Ireland and Scotland
SV- London Mayoral and Police and Crime Commissioners elections
AMS- Scottish and Welsh Parliaments, and the London Assembly
Single Party Government
FPTP is most likely to give a single party government (coalition in 2010 and arrangement with
DUP in 2017 were unusual). Return to majority of 80 in 2019.
AMS can produce a single party government, as it did with the SNP in 2011
STV is highly unlikely to produce single party governments and is largely devised to prevent it (as
seen in Northern Ireland since just one party would not be able to represent the views of the
entire nation)
Single party government arguably gives too much power to a party which may not have received
50% of the vote (even the conservative’s ‘strong majority’ in 2019 only amounted to 43.6% of
the vote). Possibility of elected dictatorship.
Party Representation
FPTP upholds two party system even when voting suggests otherwise
Lib Dems, UKIP, Greens and SNP have all had notable voting support over recent elections, but
parliament continues to be dominated by 2 parties.
2015 election showed this with the conservatives winning with only 38% of the vote, falling just
short of 50% of seats, whereas in the same election UKIP won only 1 seat with 13% of the vote
(which proportionally would have been 85 seats) whilst the SNP won 95% of Scottish seats with
50% of the vote.
Better and fairer party representation from AMS, STV and SV
However, PR can allow representation from extreme parties e.g the BNP won 2 seats in 2009
The London Assembly under AMS has a 5% threshold to avoid representation of extremist
parties
Voter Choice
STV and AMS are more proportional than FPTP, meaning a wider range of parties get seats and
the people’s vote is therefore more likely to make a difference when voting for smaller parties
However, the 2016 Welsh election under AMS showed that these are not always proportional,
where Labour did so well on the constituency vote (winning 27 seats) that it couldn’t be
mitigated by the results of the regional lists
Many voters don’t use their second vote in SV, as seen in mayoral elections
AMS allows split-ticket voting
Alternative systems are seen as more confusing which may impact on voters' ability to make
choices (possibly over 146,000 ballots incorrectly completed in Scottish Parliament Elections in
2007 under AMS)
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